This paper explains the nature and extent of distress in Indian agriculture by analytically separating the issues therein into two interrelated domains—the agricultural and the agrarian—the former being about production and the latter about distribution; the former about the farm and the latter about the farmer; the former about the inadequacies and inappropriateness of the agricultural developmental programmes, and the latter about the livelihood of the people involved in or dependent upon agrarian activities. In this broader thinking farmers’ suicides and indebtedness become symptoms of a larger malaise. Drawing on our understanding of farmers’ suicides, we show some interrelated demand-side and supply-side factors that touch upon output (including income and prices), input, credit, and other aspects. In the larger discourse on farmers’ suicides the paper also raises the importance of appropriate reporting, measurement that is relevant to the social context and suggests ways to take the debate away from a specific technology to livelihood issues. The paper thus calls for context-specific, knowledge-centric interventions, and people-centric investments.